


Planet X

by dciphoenix



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, F/M, Off-World, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 20:32:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2886572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dciphoenix/pseuds/dciphoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The glyphs that cover the face of the horizontal ring are all to familiar to his archaeologist trained eye and brain. Daniel's built in respirator hissed with each breath he took and with each step that brought him closer to the buried ring. But one thing was for sure. Planet X is seeded with a Stargate."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Vala Mal Doran smiled against the lips of her lover and gently ran a sunken cheek over his. Feeling stubble and all many other wondrous things that had long since been revealed to her – in all meanings – as she touches just about everything she can get her hands on. Meanwhile, Daniel's hands are buried in her hair, he's practically tearing her body open while lies on his back with legs in-between hers. She proudly sits on his lap, smirking as she kisses down his face, stopping at his lips and nipping his neck before journeying further. Her devious hands follow the path left by her mouth as she moves away. "Well, well isn't this naughty?"

"Yes, it is. Which is why we need to stop." Daniel pushed Vala up and off his knee and made to stand after rubbing at his tired eyes with his thumb and forefinger. He pretended to ignore her exasperated sigh and put back on his BDU jacket. "I need to get up to do what I do best and I suggest you do the same..."

He looked over at her ever lingering gaze. After long nights and long days with nothing but work and coffee to keep him company – he needed something. He was only too glad when he found that certain something on board with him, also. Vala had helped the host of Ba'al readjust to life without having a symbiote, inside his brain and not only controlling it but controlling his every thought and action as he stood by and watched helplessly as he carried out his symbiote's orders. She had then come back to the SGC and also, to Daniel, himself.

Daniel tried to push back the unruly fringe from her face, though it only sprang back after he moved his hand away. Pressing a gentle kiss to her soft lips, he moved towards the door and threw one last look at his lover for the night.

It had stopped being a carnal relationship a long, long time ago. The fire had never quite burnt its self out, as there was still those nights where she crept to him in the peaceful night on board the Odyssey. Wearing nothing but a seductive red lace two piece covered by a silky black nightgown, he was hardly ever going to turn her down. He wouldn't let her leave until the morning after, as well. Although, her sporadic visits were happening more and more frequently. Much to his confusion and concern about their relationship, Daniel went along with her feral nights.

"I'll be here when you get back, Dan." Vala grinned mischievously, swinging her legs in the air as she lay on her stomach, wearing nothing but one of his t-shirts.

Daniel nodded a reply and went to the bridge of the Odyssey – a ship capable of interstellar travel, hyperspace and not to mention extreme interplanetary warfare. She's beautiful in magnitude and able to fit a whole arsenal of weapons; if something was to go awry and needed to be dealt with soon as possible. Nevertheless, with a mix of Earth and alien technology, one could only expect the best from her. The usual hubbub of technical and scientific conversation filled the air as well as the smell of coffee with an underlying tang of sweat rippled through to where Daniel was spying their destination. A red planet, darker then Mars but lighter than the crappy maroon sofas back in his apartment. The planet loomed. It drew ever closer as the minutes ticked passed as the engines of the Odyssey made their journey as pleasant, though not as quick as what it would have been if they were going through the Stargate.

The segment of SG-1 arrived at the planet shortly after Daniel had managed to prize an over lustful Vala from his face during his break. Daniel left her enjoying a coffee and one of the glossy women's magazines in the mess which she had brought with her to keep her hands and mind occupied.

"Beaming in 3, 2..." He heard one of the technicians talking to either himself or one of the other egghead scientists who buzzed to themselves about their work. Looking over the surface of the planet, appearing as coffee red coloured ink blot on the night sky, he noted the small craters peppering the red.

He felt himself glow from the core as the matter that unites each one of his cells was quickly beamed down to the surface of the world.

The space suit protects him from all the toxins the planet harbours in the atmosphere and the ground.

Space boots kicked through the stationary dust as Daniel shone a halogen beam over as to where the reason for his being there should be. A stone circle, lazily buried under rock peeks out from under a layer of dust. The glyphs that cover the face of the horizontal ring are all to familiar to his archaeologist trained eye and brain. Daniel's built in respirator hissed with each breath he took and with each step that brought him closer to the buried ring.

But one thing was for sure.

Planet X is seeded with a Stargate and he was absolutely sure of it.


	2. Chapter 2

Daniel reached a piece of the uncovered stone and wiped away a dusty layer that prevented him from recording the glyphs that ran around the whole circle. The alien symbols were also etched in the middle of the cover plate – even though he couldn't see more than a meter ahead of him as the stationary clouds of dust hindered his sight – or the fact that he couldn't even check that the whole plate was there, and whether it was undamaged or not – he could only hope there was the alien artefact and means of transportation underneath the ancient rock and dust.

He then patted the heavy rock as a means of return, to discover its secrets and hopefully uncover many more.

Daniel reported back to the hovering ship somewhere in the vicinity though was only met with a burst of garbled speech then nothing but static.

He tried several times, each attempt ended in failure. Each attempt ended in another fraction of oxygen being depleted with each breath, and each of those were becoming hesitantly panic stricken as he mulled over the reasons why he couldn't contact home. Each theory was more colourful and not to mention more disastrous. Engine failure? Foothold situation? Life support and simulations communication systems down?

But then...

"Doctor Jackson I need you to-" A familiar female voice reached him. "Can you hear me? We're going to try and-" The transmission ended in a hiss of the monotonous static he had to endure moments before.

Then he heard nothing but silence and saw nothing but darkness.

He opened his eyes to witness the bright light seeping through dark fingers which the trees had intertwined to create over the years. The smell of the dust after the rain was more than impossible to not notice. Trees, bushes and the endless plains of green grass whispered his name as he lay under a canopy of the earthly trees.

Light years away from home and the one constant thing that he took for granted was the foliage that rustled in the wind, it made him feel as if he was at Earth. After the countless alien worlds, near death experiences and the unfortunate actual deaths he had witnessed and bore, the ground beneath his feet had always changed. But the people he was walking the planets with had never waned all that much.

He felt a small weight spread across his torso and waist. It was also warm, and not to mention very soft. But when he moved his hands to pat over and determine what the thing was, he found himself looking directly into the eyes of someone he hadn't thought he would be meeting in a place as beautiful as this. He blinked when he thought his eyes had betrayed him.

Her beauty made him forget everything he usually cares about.

"Hello, darling. You better not have fallen asleep..." Vala pushed her index finger into the end of Daniel's nose and inhaled softly as he reached to cup her warm cheek in his hand. She smiled before kissing his cheek and practically covering the entirety of him with herself. Her masses of thick, dark hair fell into his mouth and eyes as she wrestled with his belt. Her little pink tongue was peeking out of her teeth while she undressed him.

"Um, I haven't, I was just..." Having a conversation with the alien woman was suddenly made all the more difficult after she shoved her hand into his pants and was working him over with her long and thin fingers. She merely ignored him and smirked before pressing a rough and hard open mouthed kiss to his. Vala stuck her devious tongue down his throat as Daniel gripped her to him, grabbing a fistful of her hair and lifting her backside with his other hand, he quickly rolled them over so she was pinned and only able to hum and compliment him on his bedside manners.

Though after opening her eyes, she grimaced and opened her mouth to comment on his spooked expression.

"What are you doing?" Daniel hissed in her ear and waited for her answer. Daniel grabbed her by the throat did his best to fasten himself up with one hand after the chaste actions of his beloved.

"I..." She blinked with fearful eyes, trying to not let anything sway his actions. Although, her eyes betrayed her. What's wrong? Is there something wrong with me? ...or something wrong with him? He doesn't want me any more doesn't he? "I'm doing what I normally do when we're together?! Making out? Foreplay?" Daniel saw her eyes well with salt tears which made them glisten before she blinked them away before they escaped down her cheeks. "What are you doing? You were all for it not half an hour ago." She sniffled and managed to squirm and look away from him, moving her face into her shoulder.

"What were we doing half an hour ago?" He spoke softly and moved half his weight off her ever so slightly so she was able to breathe, or scream for help – whatever she pleased. "I don't even remember half an hour ago..." Jackson added after he brushed strands of hair from her face. "I don't remember a damn thing."

He moved away from her, standing up to stretch his legs and get a feel for the planet he was seemingly currently exploring. There appeared to be no housing or people for that matter in any direction that could be seen with the naked eye. There was only himself and Vala. There wasn't even birds singing in the trees, none that he could detect anyhow. It seemed void of human life to speak of. Nor any life altogether.

"Daniel?" He sense Vala feel for his pulse and then his temperature from beside him, seemingly afraid to meet his eye.

"Are you ill?" Vala asked, concerned for her best friend and colleague. Earlier, sensing nothing but ice in his voice, she thought it was best not to push too much. Not only in fear he'd hurt her again but in concern that the poor man was actually screwed up in that beautiful mind of his. Whatever the consequence, she tried to snake her hand in his.

"No idea. I have no idea what's going on. One minute I was beamed down to a planet we've never visited before and the next, I'm here." He ended with a shrug.

"I assure you, you've been here in my arms for the most part of today." She faked a smile and slinked into his arms as if to re-jog his foggy memory.

"I'm sure I were." He slightly reciprocated her affectionate actions, though was still weary as to what was happening around him.

"Do you remember last night?"

"Can't say I do." Daniel frowned.

"Well, we made love and in the morning you made or rather gave me breakfast in the bed with everything and more, as a way of telling me that you love me. Like you don't tell me enough already." Her smile widened, although it quickly died completely when she took in his solemn expression.

"I remember none of that." He looked as if someone had just ripped out his heart right in front of him and slashed it open. Or worse yet, slashed Vala's throat inches from him and forced him to watch as she bled out. "But I am sure I love you."


	3. Chapter 3

She hadn't tried to make a run for it – something that he had anticipated wrongly. Though, managing to calm her down was done much easier in his mind. Perhaps if he had Sam's ever present kindness, Jack's humour, Mitchell's directivity or whatever Teal'c uses to subdue his foes – and sometimes his friends – to get them to come to their senses it would have been done much quicker and far much easier.

Out in the wilderness, Daniel tucked Vala out of the breeze that swept through the woodland area he and Vala had obviously taken off into. She'd pulled their packs of their backs, his and hers, both full of emergency provisions and all the usual paraphernalia they brought through the gate each time, for each mission. Even when they were on their own. She had shoved her own underneath both of their skulls so she could cuddle up to him in the middle of nowhere, also so she could spend sometime alone with him. "Perhaps we should get you checked over, if you're not feeling quite yourself today?" She had worried for him even after hurting her without meaning.

He had merely answered with his arms tightening around her waist, to say he didn't want to leave her side, needing her warmth to break through the coldness. But Vala had always been a stubborn, impatient woman that he both wanted to slap and screw from the moment he met her. Or from the moment she had met him and proceeded to throw him around without a care as to if she had maimed him on the now no longer active Earth ship Prometheus.

With the same endless drive and feeling and not to mention the same care as to what he thought on the matter once again. She had then pulled him up off the thermal blanket by his hand and lugged him up and after throwing the grassy material at him, she grabbed him by the hand and called up the new, bigger and better ship Odyssey over her radio for her peace of mind.

*SG*

He now laid on his back in the medical centre of the Odyssey with Vala pacing nervously at the bottom of his bed. Her hair, tied back in messy pigtails, her eyes, wide with worry. Wired up from head to toe near enough, Daniel cleared his throat to signal to Vala to stop with the pacing. "He said he'll be back when he had the test results." Daniel grumbled.

"And has it occurred to you that he couldn't be coming back until tomorrow?" She cocked an eyebrow and sucked in her cheeks.

He tried to sit up, though after considering de-tangling himself from the many wires; he decided against it. "In that case, you should stop wearing a hole in the floor, you'll be in the hold this time tomorrow if you're here when he comes." Daniel put his head in his hands as a sign of defeat and picked up his glasses off the side table after patting blindly for them.

"Well excuse me for worrying about my Daniel." Vala pouted while Daniel was trying to remove the electrodes and IV drip from his arm. Much consideration crept through his mind while removing himself from the monitors as to how she got the Doctors to see him and get him in a bed. After all it wasn't like his limbs were hanging off by a thread or anything. Her devotion to him was beautiful as beautiful as she was, inside and out and he was utterly grateful of her being a constant in his life. Vala battered his hands away and looked away from him as she straightened up the machines.

He ignored the possessiveness in her comment, though answered her anyway. "Thank you for your concern." He softly replied, though was slightly cautious the constant hum and drone of the engines would have silenced his comment and made him look a complete fool in front of her.

"You're always welcome." She grinned and leaned over to give him one of her less hurried kisses before poking him in the cheek. "You hear me?"

"Yeah, I hear you." He returned her affections, as always. She met her lips with his and gave him reason to stay in her presence just a while longer. It was only when she patted his head and trailed her hand around and down his neck, over his throbbing vein and chest, pulling a finger into the hem of his hospital gown slightly so it would dip. Then moving her hands towards where to she usually gives her undivided attention to that he was concerned on both their actions if someone were to come in and witness what was happening. The rhythm of her kisses matched her hand while he let her have her wicked way with her until he grabbed both her wrists in one hand and lifted her slim form onto the bed beside him. She chuckled a dirty single laugh when she tried to wriggle free from his grasp made the situation all the more comical. Vala, trying to get off with a possibly brain damaged Daniel in a hospital bed after he had just been near enough bled dry for numerous tests.

He let go of her hand to dip his head and to look her straight in the eye. "Um, Vala, where are my clothes?" Finally realising he was semi naked under the white bed sheets, he felt he should raise the question before she raises something which would lead to him being thrown in the hold for indecent exposure. Or worse.

"Oh, I don't know, where do you normally find them?" She cooed innocently as she smoothed the sheets bunched around his waist. "I may have accidentally taken them into my room. You should come, get them" Giving him a sickly sweet smile.

It was a good job, he loved her. Or loathed her enough to appreciate her company and the endless banter; otherwise he'd have gotten bored of her ever present insatiableness. Vala gave a small nibble on the edge of her lip and a kiss on his intended to melt his heart, then she moved away from him, ending her day's advances with a 'come hither' look when she got to the door.

The door hissed shut, signalling her exit. He settled down in the ridged hospital bed for the night after failing to leave and failing to reassure Vala that he was alright. The minutes blurred together and so did his eyesight after trying to read a small pile of his books he always takes with him when off world. Vala must have left them behind after she went to keep herself busy for the night without her muse. He had to smirk at that as he removed his glasses and retired for the night.

Turning off his bedside light, he got under the covers that she had previously been fondling with her slender hands. That sight and the feeling of her warm muscular body pressed against his wasn't something that he would be forgetting any time soon. It was the same as before, after their introduction and following fight – he hadn't been able to get the foxy alien woman out of his mind. And then again, recently, loosing her to a stupid self-sacrifice that was her own damn fault. He had told himself the very same thing many times to spare himself the pain he didn't show. He couldn't save her that day, but he would die before he saw the day she dies before him. It would be unbearable to watch and so much more unbearable to live with.


	4. Chapter 4

He's rather rudely awakened as the door alerted him of somebody's presence as it hissed back open. He screws his eyes up further to give the visitor the faux appearance he was fast asleep. He failed.

Vala covers his mouth and nose with her hand until he chokes and jerks awake, his eyes quickly adjust to the black light that only illuminates the whereabouts of the exits and the mounted fire extinguisher next to his hospital bed. She merely smiles down at him when he sighed and reached for his glasses.

She passes them to him as ghostly light creates a halo from behind her, giving her the angelic aura she'd never been able to create for herself. She appears in her cream, silk pyjama set. Probably covering hardly anything if he knew her as well as he thought he did.

"When you didn't come to me, I got worried." Vala hushed her lover and ran a hand up his thigh before hopping up on his bed, practically pinning him to his confines for the night as she wriggled underneath his covers. "And you do know if my Romeo dies, so will his Juilette." Vala hums gently.

Trust her to know that Tau'ri story... "Well, this Romeo is trying to get his sleep, if you don't mind..." He moved her hand from his lap before she does any serious damage. He should have known his annoyer wouldn't let something as simple as a door and generic guards get past her, she wouldn't have given up so easily.

She runs a hand through his hair contentedly. "I've persuaded the General to give you some time off and once again you're due for some free time."

"How long?" He asked blindly.

"Two weeks. It's enough time for you to get back on your feet, right?" Vala answers him.

"It's more than enough." Daniel looks over at her, and notes her unusually solemn expression. Her eyes are down cast and he barely notices it in the dim light. Though her brow furrowed and her eccentric excitableness is not there for once, which disappears behind her faux seductive when he reaches over and moves her warm body closer to his. "You alright?" Which he also can't ignore.

"Mm, fine. Just tired." She gives her signature grin, hoping to gloss over the worry she heard in his voice when he's not even trying to hide it.

"How long were we at the planet?"

"A little under a day."

"I hope someone's feeding my fish." He added, succumbing to the fact that Vala was there for the night and in no process of leaving.

"That little balding man in the gate room will, I suppose." She grins into his pillow.

"What's Walter doing in my office?" Daniel grumbles sleepily as he pulls the sheets over them both, not wanting to get into another flirting match with her.

"Not sure. But as long as you invite me, I'll be happy." Vala nuzzles him, almost animalistic; although she was possessive of him from the start.

Ignoring her try to flirt with him, he hushes her and wishes her a good night before shutting his eyes and attempting to sleep. More than hoping she'd do the same.

"Today just seemed like a usual re-con as far as I were concerned. But obviously judging by today's events, it's not so usual, huh?"

"Just get some sleep, we'll sort it all out tomorrow."

"I hope we will." He hears her say before his exhaustion is too much.

"Can someone escort Ms Mal Doran out of here? She's not even supposed to be in here." Daniel hears without even opening his eyes.

The doctor who conducted the tests on Daniel puts rights the stethoscope around her neck as Vala peers over Daniel's glasses which are perched on the end of her nose as Vala squints at the scrawly writing and reads through his journal that was left so per-curiously on the night stand next to them both. She hands both his belongings back to Daniel before huffing a vast lungful of breath out and moved out his bed, stopping to touch him on the arm, voicing her concern for him before shooting off a warning glance at the blonde doctor. The blond female saunters out the door wearing nothing but her sleepwear and leaves him for the meanwhile. "What can I do for you, Doc?" He groggily asks.

"Well, Doctor Jackson, I can see nothing physically wrong with you. Your tests came back clean, so nothing out of the ordinary there. Which means I can't diagnose your amnesia or lack there of. I should point it out and report it to the General that your symptoms; disorientation, memory loss, irritability and so on could may well be long term usage of the 'gate?" The doctor raises an eyebrow and clips the results chart on the edge of his bed. "As you, Jack O'Neill and a number of other Stargate Command personnel have side effects from it. I suggest you get some rest, I'm sure he will be wanting to speak to you on the matter."

"Yeah, that occurred to me. But the whole Stargate making me ill thing, nah. Not buying it." Daniel screwed up his face to further his opinion.

"I'm not asking that you buy it, Doctor, only that you consider it." She moves out the room and leaves him to his thoughts shortly after.

There is a second hiss of the door shortly after the departure, he cranes his head to the side and is less than surprised again to find Vala by his bedside. "Didn't you leave?"

"Yup, now I've come back." She smiles and makes herself comfortable. "Well, actually," Vala continues, sticking her tongue in her cheek to make it dint before carrying on with her story. "I just waited around in the hall and if anyone was coming, I'd just walk a bit and act like I was going off somewhere, you know as I do. Which I wasn't because I wanted to be here with you." Ending her rant she gestures at him and nods slightly at his glazed-eyed expression. "I've told better haven't I?" She winces.

"A lot more far fetched, too." He replies, though received a punch to his arm.

"It's a good job I find you attractive. Or else." She grabs the end of his nose and gives it a pinch like you would do to a child. "You feeling any better?" Vala asked after a sigh.

"I'm numb. I can't feel anything, I mean, inside. I look, I touch and all that but I'm not feeling anything." He looks down at his fingers as if to miraculously start feeling himself again.

"So not feeling any better, then?" She frowns.

"No, sorry."

"Don't worry yourself, you have plenty of time to go on the mend. I promise." She pats him on the arm.

"It's get on the mend, and yeah. I suppose."

"Well," Vala moves his journal and pen onto his lap before getting off his bed. "You amuse yourself in the meantime. We'll be back home in no time, I'm sure."

"Vala?" He calls to her before she steps out of the room. Having a hunch of an idea as to why she seemed depressed and irritated more then usual. Daniel meets her eye as he speaks his theory. "Have we slept together yet?"

Vala's eyes grow wide while she pouts as she appears to have trouble in replying to him. "No. No, not yet. I keep wanting to but-" She takes a breath.

"It's me." He muses to himself and sees her falter. "You see, that's how I know this place isn't right, because in my reality, or wherever I've come from and got send here somehow, you and I, we're together." He blankly stares up at her and sees her expression hasn't changed.

Not all that much.

"We are?"

"We are."


	5. Chapter 5

The music, mind numbingly loud. Head pounding, floor shaking, Daniel followed Vala with his hand in hers. Fingers intertwined in his own. The bass seemed to treble the closer they got as repercussions bled through his feet and into his legs. How anyone could pay money to visit and revisit locations such as these was beyond him. But then again, Jack and Vala on numerous occasions others wondered how he could possibly feel the urge to spend days on end in dusty ancient – in both senses of the word – libraries and/or long since abandoned planets.

I can't even hear myself think. Near blinding, white beams of light occasionally passed over them both and the multitudes of others in the cramped, dim room. Square in shape with off-shoots of rooms to go and have a drink from the bar, which was situated behind them both with the origins of the lights sat around the perpetual dance floor. Reaching from the door to the far wall in front of them both where the DJ or whoever was in control, responsible of the mass onslaught of loud noise was entertaining the customers for the night. The light created more shadows of the people, multiplying them and moving them at will over the walls.

She flashed him a Cheshire cat grin, the strobe light catching her face and eyes, making everything angelic in appearance once again. She seemed to hold her hands together under her face for a moment. Or she could be doing something else entirely, the floating haze in the air and dark made it impossible to see or concentrate on what she was doing. But she then roughly kissed him, and felt her brush against him, patting his hip. Though when she pulled away she held out his phone to him, unlocked and showing him a recent text message.

You said you wanted to feel alive, your wish is my command.

V x

When he turned back, she was already moving away from him, moving her slender body to the pounding beat. Pick-pocketed and seduced without a single word; only she was capable of such a thing. Vala tossed her hair over her back, throwing her body in motion with all the others before looking back over her shoulder. Feigning she was uninterested as she slipped easily into the moving dark wall in front. She pulled him towards her by her essence alone, Daniel, not even loosing her in the crowd.

Daniel reached her, grasping her lightly at the waist. Immediately, her movements changed. More spurred, yet hardly chaotic. Vala grabbed his hands, forcing them down onto her bare abdomen where her shirt rode up, sparing her flesh. Her nails scoring across his fingers and the dips between them when she pushed herself back into him. Each movement touching him, each one for him. To try and illicit a response from him.

She turned away from him again, just when he got a little closer. Daniel pressed his lips to her neck, then down onto her collarbone. Vala rubbed his hands underneath the waistband of her jeans and began to grind her hips. Pushing her body into his again when he kissed her cheek, finally getting a glimpse of her features. Her eyes were shut, head thrown back, lips dry and half open, in complete ecstasy. Running one hand up his arm, leaving the other where it had made its home, she ran her fingers through his hair and made out to kiss him before turning her body away from him and towards the rhythm once more.

The minute the fast track ended, she was stood, panting. Her pupils wide as he finally when he rounded on her, not even a few seconds before she could be thrown back in motion again by the next track. He met her mouth with hers and tasted the salt on her lips, felt it on her skin as he threaded his fingers into her hair and held her to him. Not letting her leave his side this time. She had been sweating whilst dancing. If it wasn't for her spaced appearance and the fact her hands were shaking and just as heated as the rest of her, he would've been concerned she was ill.

Vala pushed him in the chest then tugged him by the wrist. Playing with him, playing him. Then practically dragging him off. Hopefully towards one of the little rooms with the padded seats he saw on his way in. After all that with her on the dance floor and seeing as she was far from being done with him for the night, he'd like to get off his feet for a little while. She pulled him out of the cavorting crowd and into one of the few off shoots, relieved as she sighed at the sight it was empty.

Vala was far from done with him.

She shoved Daniel into one of the red puffed couches before turning away from him, the seats that lined the wall of the off shoot were just the sort of setting he thought she had be after by the looks of things. A chance to play with her muse. Her prey. She hopped up on the clear glass table that stood before the seats, Vala then knocked back a drink he hadn't realised she had even been holding. Where did she get that from? Did she buy it?

She dropped a shot glass, empty on the top of the table before flicking her gaze over to him. Vala stalked him, then without warning dropped herself in his lap, letting him hold her steady as he felt her play with the buttons on his shirt. Not letting a sliver of air pass between them, she kissed him hard, twice. Letting him get used to the feel of her as her tongue twisted in his mouth the second time. Drinking in her and her alcohol while she ran the tip along the roof of his mouth until she had them both panting.

The pounding in his ears, now having nothing to do with the music in the other room. "You feel so good." So real.

"Just as you remember?" Still breathing heavily, she continued to toy with his clothing, as well as him.

"Something like that... did you buy that drink?" Daniel cocked an eyebrow.

"How about I don't answer that one, hmm?" She threw a toothy grin, anything but innocent.

He smirked. "Where did you get it from?"

"I was sure the nice waitress over there was bringing it over to me, so naturally I took it!" Vala beamed. "It was lovely, but not as lovely as you. Now," Her dark eyes faltered for a moment, but his attention was more focused on her muscular, not skinny form after she swung a leg over both of his, straddling herself over him. "What are you going to do about it?"

Daniel looked her in the eye, mouth slightly still agape.

"I'm yours for tonight."


	6. Chapter 6

"How about we go back to yours?" She breathed heavily, puffs of her breath came from her chapped lips as her breathing slowed. Daniel kissed her throat, moving his mouth further up her skin as she sucked in a breath, obviously shocked by his sudden affectionate action. He ran his hands over her back, from the top of her shirt to where his fingers dipped onto her flesh again, feeling the tension in her body soon passed moments after. It took him seconds to kiss her on the mouth and swiftly lift her off his lap and lead her out of the mass of bodies and into his car for the night.

After a few minutes drive they had arrived at his and he'd offered to make her comfortable. But just as he thought he knew – Vala was after one thing only. Vala slinked into his arms after he closed the door behind her, wearing her signature butter-wouldn't-melt smile when she kissed him, slow and hard. Daniel mapped out the curves to her body as she held him close, now and then he would stroke the exposed flesh of her abdomen that had been driving him crazy since her little seductive night had started.

Earlier, being beamed down into the Stargate Command medical wing after a quick examination and a change of clothes, Vala offered to take him out for the night. He had hesitated at first, not sure it was the wisest thing to do after coming to terms he wasn't in his own world. But like always, Vala had gotten her way. She had gave him her best woe-is-me look, complete with puppy dog eyes and had offered it as a chance for them to have a date together.

Daniel held her face in his hands as she kissed him, her naughty little wet mouth was just so alluring to him and she was in his apartment, feeling so real, so alive and in no way way he going to say no to her. He trailed a hand down her neck and felt her fast pulse under his fingers, getting a sudden sense of deja vu, he pulled away and rested his head against hers. Gentle hands hung around his shoulders as he looked her in eye. "Something wrong?" Her voice was raspy as she asked him.

"Nothing is wrong." He began to undo the buttons on her blouse and loved the slight blush that rose to her cheeks while he got to the third button which exposed her ample cleavage. She needn't blush, unless she was enjoying this night just as much as he. He found her beautiful, exquisite, a wonder to the Goddess who took her as host who twisted her beauty into a flaw, a negative.

Daniel made quick work on the lower buttons so he could run his hand over her pushing the silky fabric to the floor. Getting down on his knees, Daniel kissed over her breasts, taking his time with each one as well as the dip between her stomach muscles, goose skin broke out over her flesh as he did. Though his hands and mouth were brought to a halt by her jeans and the belt they were fastened with. By now, she was panting with her head half thrown back, half undressed and looking so perfectly beautiful when he looks up at her. He feels her run a hand through his hair, from his nape as she gazes down at him, her pupils wide again with lust this time.

"Uh, Daniel... bedroom." It wasn't a question, not in anyway. He quickly picked her up, feeling her wrap her long legs around his waist before he led them both into the bedroom at the far side of the apartment...

She had felt wrong. Warm, soft and needing, but at the end of it he was more concerned with the fact it in no way had measured up with their first night in his reality. That had bothered him. More than the fact she may not have been truly honest when he had asked if they had slept together. On his arrival to this world, reality – whatever it was it still felt blank to his mind, a white canvas on which only he and she were painted. She had told him that morning they had slept together, but when he had asked her, Vala had answered him negatively if they had had sex. Something wasn't right. Something wasn't right at all. Vala had made him feel alive, nevertheless. A good rush of endorphins and a work out his body was long overdue, he had her gasping and whimpering for him as he had her underneath him, but that wasn't so different from their first time back from where he was from. Only that she had ridden him. Twice, and not left him until the afternoon the following day.

Daniel brushed hair from her face as she snuggled deeply into his chest, her body bound to his by his sheets, only her face and feet peeked out of the bedding. Her skin was hot, hotter than his as he moved to sit up slightly, lifting her with him. Pulling her into his arms as she rested beside him, her hair wild in his bed as she breathed deeply. Feeling a clammy sheen hang to her skin as he drew patterns on her flesh with his thumb and forefinger.

"Mm, round two?" She smiled into his neck, kissed the flesh of his cheek then bending backwards and pressing another kiss to his lips. Soft, wet lips pulled at his own until he pulled away, framing her face with his hands.

"You said we hadn't slept together, yet you said this morning we did?" Daniel moved his thumbs to the hollows of her cheeks, forcing her line of sight.

Vala hesitantly answered, the sheets, a soft binding around her so she couldn't pull away. "We've had sex, yes... but we haven't slept together yet. You know, as in you staying the night with me, as you always leave me afterwards, oddly enough." She pressed her lips together as a car drove past, flashing the doubt in her eyes as well as momentarily lighting up the bedroom of his small apartment – smaller than the one he had previously. All his artefacts, prised and ignored were all where reflected momentarily until it had passed all where he had left them. His home. It looked the same, felt the same and even smelt the same as he'd come home and uncorked a bottle of wine for them both when they had been done in the club.

Though, she'd been uninterested in the crimson drink, the hunger in her eyes had been for another appetite to whet. "I promise I'll never leave you now."


	7. Chapter 7

Daniel woke late the next morning, unsure of the time as the Summer dawn turns the green curtains in his window a blue as the sun comes into the room. Vala continues to sleep soundly as she always did after visiting him. Not even an alien invasion could wake her up, although a hellish nightmare created by her daughter on the other-hand... But nothing had disturbed her as he had watched her sleep the night following her date at the bar.

Apparently Mitchell had told her about it, that and the Kit Kat club in Europe where you have to check your pants in at the door. He was only too glad she hadn't taken him to that one. He smiles at that and covers her bare shoulder with the sheet that had fallen away from his waist. She's turned away from him as he's watching her, so he is extra careful when getting out of bed, not wanting to disturb her in her peaceful slumber. Picking up and throwing on his clothes from last night, an old shirt and trousers that doesn't even match anything else in his wardrobe.

Daniel then moves into the kitchen area of his apartment, turning on the hob to throw together a breakfast suitable for them both. He takes food out of the fridge; milk, eggs and some fruit off the breakfast bar to make pancakes with when his eyes fall upon a tatty pile of books across on the coffee table. Has life become that stressful? I'm forgetting simple house hold tasks now?! When he barely has enough time to come home, fix himself a meal and roll into bed? Was he better off like Teal'c who lives constantly on base? Vala had gone the bad kind of crazy when she had to stay on base for just a few months after coming back from their adventures with no where to live, whereas the once First Prime had spent many years and hadn't said a thing. Although there was the time where Teal'c had lived off base. Which only ended in disaster, must to Daniel's discomfort.

He yawns, sleepily before running his finger along the first page and opening the book, Daniel tutted to himself as the first book – and probably the whole pile was due back the day before last. Daniel quickly scooped up the pile of books off the coffee table across from the breakfast bar and went back behind the cooker to fix them both a breakfast. Soon, the air filled with the smell of apple pancakes and he went to get the maple syrup out of the cupboard before he checks the other books on the breakfast bar. The Pyramids: A History. Daniel does the same to the other books and on the last, he notes there's a fresh blood stain on the corner of the page he just looks at.

Looking at his hands before continuing cooking, his gaze lands on the rather fresh and deep gash on his left index finger. A deep, red gash in an horizontal line had started oozing blood as he was looking at it. He hastily looked around for something to wrap around his fingers, snagging a piece of disposable towel, he dabbed the cloth on his fingers.

Something then occurred that he had thought was amiss. Shouldn't I be feeling pain? But no, only still numbness ebbed through his form. Daniel suddenly felt cold inside, sick, nauseous as the amiss feeling was too much to handle.

"Daniel?" Her unmistakable floaty, seductive voice washed over to him as he stemmed the slight bleed in his flesh. "What's wrong? What have you done to yourself now?" She tutted and opened the towel cocooned around his hand. Muttering to herself when she saw the cut, Vala took it from him and ran it under the water before wringing it out and then reapplied it. He saw she had pulled on his dressing gown around her once naked body and tied it more than once. "Can I smell burning?" She looked him in the eye as she finished to her work.

"Damn it..." Daniel got out of her grasp and turned off the cooker, and took the pan off the fire as he opened the bedroom door, the one closest to the kitchen in his apartment so the smoke would filter though his home. Hopefully not triggering the fire alarm. He watched the pan and its contents cool as he listened to her speak to him. The sick feeling subsiding slightly at her voice.

"Were you cooking me breakfast in bed?" Her smile grew into a grin, something he just loved seeing. Real or not.

"Trying to." He was surprised he has such a good night's sleep, but then again said work out from the night before and rush of serotonin in his brain had possibly swayed his body. That and the alcohol intake.

Daniel had managed to fix them both a suitable breakfast, salvaging the pancakes from the pan for him and throwing something together for her. A few minutes after the breakfast fiasco, Daniel gripped the steering wheel as Vala watched him out the corner of her eye. Daniel drove them both to the Stargate Command underneath Cheyenne Mountain, taking the main roads and sparing no time for others on this road. Just to feel alive. Just to feel something.

He could at least feel her gaze. Though he couldn't feel the flecks in the rubber of the wheel, feel the breeze in his face while he had wound down the window. Just the little things mattered. And it was the little things that were no longer there. Getting to Stargate Command in record time had mean he had to put peddle to the metal. He parked the car and watched the generic guards filter into the guard house inside the gate as he and Vala made their way into the bowels of Cheyenne Mountain.

The doctor checked him over a third time, this time with no indefinite stay in the medical wing. But once again the results for toxins, abnormalities and the like had come up negative.

He was still at a loss as to what had happened to him and why there was a difference in this reality and the one where he has seemingly left and got transported from.

Daniel pushed down his sleeve from the blood test, done a few hours ago. He had zoned out on the medical bed, time not mattering to him any more.

Was he really that depressed?

Vala had to be taken from his side an unknown time ago, her duty calls as it always does.

Though, there's one last thing he could try while his setting comes back to him.

If he can't feel pain, then there'll be nothing to fear. Right?

Daniel gets off of the bed, his attention taken by the box across from him on a wheeled trolley. The handles are a worn red that has faded so much over the years, they are now a shade of orange. The white, clinical metal of the box glints of the overhead incandescent light but his shadow hinders the light catching it any longer as he takes the fire coloured handles. Turning up the dial to 360, Daniel felt the weight on the handles of the defibrillator as he attached them to his chest and then Daniel Jackson thought no more.


	8. Chapter 8

He opened his eyes to see the florescent overhead lights glaring in his face. That, in itself was something of a miracle.

As well as the realisation that it's the lights that hang in the medical wing on-board the Odyssey, oddly enough. Daniel blinks several times, feeling tiredness and aches all over just as if he'd been asleep for a month. Had he? How long? Daniel then shifts his body weighs slightly, feeling his hand set in place when he looks over to his left. He can hardly believe his eyes, which had adjusted to the light as his eyes rest on Vala who he had left back home, in Stargate Command. How is this possible?

Her hair hangs down over her face, shielding her expression and eyes from him. But then he notes the slight creases in her hand while he holds it; older than what she makes out to be – but he was always good at judging how old priceless artefacts were. The paper-thin nightgown around his torso and the same density sheet underneath his weight fizzles into his mind. Then the steady beep and whir of the machines in the room he is currently in. The brightness of the lights, the sterile smells, the cold, artificial air and the strange stomach-lurching motion that he had long since grown used to is rushing back to him. Once, journeying for the first time through the Stargate; now doing the same thing on a daily basis with no fear; not any more and in many ways of star travel, too.

They all scream something to him. If only he had the energy to do so himself.

"Vala?" He finds his voice is croaky and raw when he speaks to her, feeling his chest tighten as it doesn't seem she had heard him.

"Daniel?" Vala keeps her eyes on his hand that is in-between both of hers, resting on the side of the medical bed. "Am I hearing things?"

"Nope." He weakly smiles at her optimism. "It's me."

The minute he replies, she raises her head and eyes before launching herself at him. Daniel, given only a matter of seconds to respond or risk his ribs being crushed. "You've been out for a few hours. Had me a little worried, or rather, quite worried."

"Strange... it's been a few days where I thought I was. Which, I guess was all in my head." He looks down at the grey, metal floor and feels her grip on him relax a fraction. "But it didn't feel real." Daniel adds, feeling relief wash over him.

"And what about me, hmm? Do I feel real?" She looks him over, pulling back slightly, hands letting go.

"Of course you do. This feels very real." As if to make his point he holds he face in his hands. She always liked it when he did that; she had told him once. Told him it made her feel safe. He draws her back after a beat, hold her in his arms. Not wanting to let go.

"I should be the one to tell you your suit malfunctioned, Novak tried to tell you before it sprung a leak. You were a little preoccupied so something tells me you skipped some tests, hmm? Anyway you're here now and that's what matters." He hears her whisper but he couldn't care less about how it looked. She felt real, smelt like cherry blossoms when he buried his hands in her hair, inhaling all he can while all she can do is reciprocate his actions. "You know, I'm usually all for physical contact-" He silences her with his rough lips on hers and she can do nothing but be his eternal muse for however long he needs her to be. Feeling the bed sink next to him, Daniel pulls her closer when she leaves invisible marks on his arms as her fingers scratch down his biceps. He could have gone further, much further but never got the chance as when his hands link around her waist his ears prick up at the sound of feet and then of a voice.

"Good god, Jackson, keep it in ya pants?!"

"What?" He breaks apart from Vala to see Mitchell with an entertained grin on his face with Teal'c and Sam behind each shoulder with the briefest of smirks on their smug faces. Like angels. Avenging angels... one for each shoulder. One demon, one angel. "Er, nothing. Vala was just...um..." He is for once at a loss for words.

"Welcoming my dear Daniel back into the land of the living!" She smiles innocently and jumps from his bed and heads to the door, followed by the rest of the team. Never will he take anything for granted ever again.


End file.
